Top positive review

I learned as much about Perl as I did about data structures and algorithms.

There are great examples of creating and accessing nested data structures, references, etc. as well as the map and sort that makes them really stand out. By the time you are half way through the book you'll be an expert in slicing and dicing any hierarchy of arrays, hashes, and references. Other books cover these topics, but using them with data structures and algorithms makes them really stick. I may never write a sort algorithm, but my code is much tidier now.

Top critical review

As a guy ( engineer not computer expert ) who uses computers everyday to help his research, I would steer you away from using Perl for any task involving mathematical concepts more complicated than addition/subtraction/multiplication and addition.I heard this same advice before buying this book and ignored it, I really wish I had listened back then.While MAP has some nice pictures which broadly describe the essential concepts, it will give you no idea as to how to actually implement those ideas. Further, all the code is available in CPAN ( If you don't know CPAN, check it out before going any further - at the very least install a module ) and much ( at least what I attempted to use ) appeared to be broken.Authors of computer books are usually good about answering e-mail but these authors did not deign to respond to mine.If you are out there, struggling to learn algorithms, I would suggest taking a good computer course on the subject. I'm 99% certain the course will be taught in C/C++ or similar language -these languages have tremendous advantages over Perl when it comes to data structures and, believe me, even as a novice I've come to appreciate them...If you really know algorithms and wish to write a few in Perl, you can do without this book. Pick up Deitel & Deitel's 'Perl: How to Program' instead or O'Reilly's basic book ( which is good, but I prefer Deitel and Deitel ) ....besides D&D answer their e-mail.

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I learned as much about Perl as I did about data structures and algorithms.

There are great examples of creating and accessing nested data structures, references, etc. as well as the map and sort that makes them really stand out. By the time you are half way through the book you'll be an expert in slicing and dicing any hierarchy of arrays, hashes, and references. Other books cover these topics, but using them with data structures and algorithms makes them really stick. I may never write a sort algorithm, but my code is much tidier now.

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If you have to learn Perl in your production life for any reason, I think this book would be one of the best option that you can have. At least, you can enrich your knowledge of algorithms, and that is worth to pay for.

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I attend an Algorithms Design class, this book help me understand some of the topics I didn't recall clear on that class, having a lot of examples like in this book is what I needed to continue and become also a self-learner.

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It's another one of those useful blue O'Reilly books with an animal on the front. A wolf, in this case. This one starts with basic data structures in Perl and then presents reusable algorithms of increasing complexity. The authors intend it for two types of readers: "...those who want to cut and paste solutions and those who want to hone their programming skills." Attempting to serve both audiences, the authors attempt to be both practical and theoretical.

The book begins with basic and advanced data structures. The next series of chapters each address basic programming tasks such as sorting, searching, and working with sets, matrices, graphs, and strings. The final set of chapters is organized by topic area, covering geometric algorithms, number systems, number theory, cryptography, probability, statistics, and numerical analysis. A concluding appendix suggests additional readings.

The format and quality are familiar to readers of other O'Reilly books. It is a good, readable exploration of algorithms implemented in Perl. You will need to get the latest version of Perl on your own. No problems with that, either.